Home Barista
Home sweet home
Slow down.
I'm back from a week-long trip to Wyoming for work. These trips are fun and I'm so lucky I get to do them, but they're also seriously draining. They typically involve extremely early call times and super long hours. And it's a marathon. Selfishly, I also dread the coffee situation in these trips as we typically end up in small towns with old school mom and pop cafes.
Jackson isn't such a place. To say it's a wealthy town is an understatement. There were quite a few good options for coffee, but as always, the drinks were highly dependent on the barista on duty. I had one pretty good morning flat white at Snake River Roasting Company, but every other time I stopped by was pretty bad. At one visit, I was served coffee so hot, I couldn't even hold the glass (and they were using notNeutral Vero cups, which I love but they are NOT meant to hold overly hot drinks like that).
I also had high hopes for another cafe called Persephone Bakery, but I also got served a pretty burnt cup of coffee there. I don't necessarily think it's their fault. Americans looove their coffee piping hot, to their own detriment. I do think these two cafes were serving interesting roasts judging by the bags they were selling, but sadly, I didn't really get to experience them fully because of how burnt they served them.
So, I was extremely happy to get back to my own house and my own espresso machine to make my own flat whites exactly as I like them—perfect drinkable temp.
My friend texted me this recently, "I'm about to have the worst cup of coffee of my life." And then a few moments later, "Yup. Smells like burnt nuts." I was lamenting to the same friend about a recent visit to a cafe I used to love and how it's pretty easy to predict whether or not your coffee is going to be good based on the barista's demeanor. In Los Angeles, where both bad coffee incidents took place, this is a pretty common sight especially during the very busy morning rush. You'll see baristas, especially new hires, in a panicked state doing the best they can.
Art's not the best, but they were delicious, which is the most important thing
Real, good coffee prepared with thought and care just isn't meant for this world of go, go, go. When I make Bobby's and my coffee drinks in the morning, I take my sweet ass time. That's just not a luxury that service workers in the US, who also rely heavily on tips, can afford to do. It's such a shame.
It made me realize that if I ever do open up my own cafe, I would want it to be slow. But then it also wouldn't make any money. So I guess I'm not doing that.
Major upgrade
I've been waiting for this day.
My new machine has arrived! And it is so much prettier and heftier than I imagined. This thing is an absolute beast.
Today is Bobby's 40th birthday. It's also the day I officially received my new espresso machine. All the way from Florence, Italy where it was painstakingly made. I ordered this machine over a month ago, and I was prepared to wait much longer than I did. I was also nervous about being faced with the fact that my latte art struggles had nothing to do with my inferior machine and everything to do with me. So as soon as I finished setting up, I went on to pull my first double shot and steamed some milk for a flat white, served in a 6oz La Marzocco cup, and wow...
Delicious flat white made with Ethiopian beans from Enderly Coffee and my new machine I call "Elaine".
I poured my best textured and wiggled latte art yet. The milk was perfectly steamed in like 10 seconds, compared to almost a minute with my Breville. I'm blown away. I dramatically told Bobby that my life is forever changed today.
Something clicked
Edit: Wiggles!
I'm editing this post complaining about how I kept doing tulips and no wiggles, because yesterday, I finally achieved a real wiggled base in an 8oz cup. This has become my ideal cup size these last couple weeks. It gives me a good amount of canvas to practice with. I'll switch back to exclusively 6oz drinks, which is my preferred cup size for my flat whites, once I feel more confident with my pours.
Two days in a row of wiggled bases!
My tulips are pretty good now. I can stack a good amount of layers depending on the cup size and my milk consistency. I have to admit, morale is pretty high. I haven't painted a formless blob in weeks and that feels really damn good after consistent daily pouring. Practice does help! Once my confidence on wiggling is up, I'll attempt even more wiggles beyond just the base.
Tulips, tulips, tulips. Cup sizes, from left to right: 6oz, 10oz, 12oz.
Matcha
I've never had or made one before, but I wanted to try.
I have a weird bias against tea for no reason other than I didn't grow up drinking it. On the other hand, Bobby loves all kinds of tea, including matcha. One of the reasons I got so deep into latte art is because of my desire to throw a coffee shop party at my house (it's where we pretend we're a cafe, except everything's free for our friends and family). I thought about my friends who don't really like coffee, but like tea. I need to have something on the menu for them.
Enter matcha. Armed with some high quality matcha powder and a whisking set, I made my first matcha latte for Bobby. Coincidentally, it was also St. Patrick's Day.
I take every opportunity to drink out of this gorgeous vessel by Ginny Sims. It brings so much joy.
The whisking part was surprisingly tough on my arms. Once I saw the promising froth, I steamed some milk and poured. I served it nervously to Bobby who responded with, "Perfect. Right on the money." Hell yeah. I took a sip as well and I actually quite liked it. Maybe I'll start drinking matcha.
The Machine or Me?
Can I do latte art with my cheap machine?
Three weeks ago, I signed up for latte art classes at the only local cafe that offers it in my city. Apparently, before the COVID-era, at least three other shops offered barista classes. But right now, this is the only option in the area which is kinda crazy to think about because I live in a major city.
I went in with the purpose of learning the basic principles of steaming and pouring milk that I could then take home with me to keep practicing. It was a two-hour class with a maximum of 2 students. To my luck, the other student was a no-show so I got an incredible 1-on-1 experience. I also begged him to teach me with oat milk because it's what I use at home. The class was great! The barista was incredibly thorough. And perhaps because I was the only student, he didn't mind answering dozens of questions. I went from doing blobs to actually doing tulips in just under two hours. It was pretty encouraging.
Then I went home to my Breville machine and could not reproduce any of it, while following the same things I learned in class. Turns out, the steaming power of my machine compared to the La Marzocco machine at the cafe requires some significant technique adjustments on my part. It was a bummer, but three weeks (and many cartons of oat milk) later, and I feel like I'm getting the hang of my machine's limitations. Just in time for my new one to come in.
Some of my more successful pours
I really wanted to prove to myself that I could do it even with less than ideal gear. The inconsistency was very frustrating, plus the inability to do back to back milk drinks, which is what I want to do when I host people at my house. The steam wand, after 3-4 consecutive cups of coffee, needed rest or it would just not work anymore so it wasn't possible to do a long practice session. It also clogged incredibly easily regardless of how diligent I was about purging.
So despite "figuring it out" with my Breville, I'm extremely excited for my new one to come in. In the end, my conclusion is this: yes, skills matter more than the gear, but it wouldn't hurt to be better equipped.
